Time Warner Cable Brings Streaming App To Xbox One, Neuters Its Signature Feature

What is it with cable companies these days? If they aren’t jacking up your rates every year or renaming you to “Asshole Brown” or “Super Bitch”, they’re releasing half-baked products while making it seem as though they’re doing you a favor. Comcast drew more than a few sneers this week when it declined to sign off on allowing its customers to access HBO Go through Sony’s PlayStation 4.

Now it’s time for us to shake our heads at Time Warner Cable, which is now bringing its TWC streaming app to the Xbox One. As someone who regularly uses the TWC app on my smartphone, tablet, and Roku 3, it’s a well thought out app that I couldn’t live without. Time Warner Cable says that Xbox One users can use the app to “easily navigate and watch up to 7,000 free and subscription VOD titles through the app on Xbox One at no additional cost.”

The TWC app supports Snap multitasking and if you’re one of the few that sprung for Kinect, you’ll also have access to voice commands which is a nice touch. However, Xbox One users will find that the best feature of the TWC app is nowhere to be found. That’s right, the over 300 live channels that are available to other TWC app users is missing in action on the Xbox One. This feature deletion is made even more puzzling by the fact that the TWC app for the aging Xbox 360 includes this functionality.

According to Multichannel News, Time Warner Cable is working to add live TV functionality to the TWC app, but there is currently no ETA. Considering how a big a feature this is to leave out, we wonder why the cable giant didn’t just wait until the feature was ready before releasing the app. After all, the Xbox One has been on the market for nearly a year and a half so promptness isn’t exactly on Time Warner Cable’s mind…